Skilled organ keyboard players spend a great deal of time setting the divide point of pedal divide units. The pedal divide enables a keyboard player to split the pedal board into a base line of a lower portion and a melody of the upper portion of the pedal board. During an orchestral transcription, many changes to the exact divide point may be required during the scope of one piece of music.
The ability to divide a keyboard or pedalboard has existed for over 100 years, but with electronic relay systems the ability to change where the divide point occurs has been added. Most commonly, a selector knob in a drawer allows the keyboard player to choose the divide point. This keyboard allows the two feet of an organist to play two separate sounds. Traditionally, the “divide point” (the point where the transition occurs) was typically fixed by hardwired multi-gang electrical switches. This “divide point” could not be changed and was a major musical and creative limiting factor.
Other methods of setting the divide point are confusing and inconvenient. These methods include but are not limited to a dial in a drawer, a complex menu system, and interacting with a PC screen.
What is needed is a system where an artist can just turn on and play a keyboard such as an organ keyboard without having to set a divide point.